Methodist Healthcare facilities strive to be in the top 10 percent of performance for all quality measures. We are dedicated to continuous improvement in all areas of patient care.

Quality can be measured in various ways, including:

Outcomes achieved such as mortality rates and surgical infections

Compliance with evidence-based processes known to enhance care

Volume of patients with complex diagnoses and procedures successfully treated

The safety record of each facility

Continuous Quality Improvement

FALLS

In 2016, ECRI Institute published a paper and reported the following:

Falls are common, particularly for older adults, both in the community and in healthcare settings. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that one in three U.S. adults age 65 or older falls each year (CDC "Important Facts About Falls"). According to the Joint Commission, hundreds of thousands of patients fall in hospitals each year, with 30% to 50% of falls resulting in injury (Joint Commission "Sentinel Event Alert"). The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) states that between 700,000 and 1,000,000 people fall in the hospital each year (AHRQ). Other studies estimate that 3% to 20% of hospital inpatients fall during a hospital stay (AAOS). According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) National Center for Patient Safety (NCPS), an internal, confidential, nonpunitive reporting system, falls represented the number one category of root-cause analyses as of March 2015 (U.S. VA). Between 50% and 75% of nursing home residents fall each year—twice the rate among older adults in the community (CDC "Falls in Nursing Homes").Methodist Healthcare System Falls Committee has as its members, bedside clinical staff and leaders, and meets bimonthly. The 2018 goal is to reduce falls and falls with injury by 30% over the 2017 reported fall count. To date, MHS has reduced the number of falls with injury by 31%. This success is the result of Implementation of a fall stratification model (identifies patients at risk for falls), education of patient and family, by the clinical staff are all important components in the reduction of falls.

HAND HYGIENE

The CDC reports that on average, healthcare providers clean their hands less than half of the times they should. On any given day, about one in 25 hospital patients has at least one healthcare-associated infection. Healthcare providers might need to clean their hands as many as 100 times per 12-hour shift, depending on the number of patients and intensity of care.

In 2017, an audit was conducted at all MHS campuses to determine hand hygiene compliance. MHS implemented the “Get ‘em Clean” campaign to increase hand hygiene practice. By the end of 2017, MHS hand hygiene compliance average was improved by 10.7%. This campaign continues today.

Quality Rankings

There are several organizations that monitor the quality and safety of hospitals across the United States. The following organizations recognize Methodist Healthcare for high levels of quality and safety:

Methodist Healthcare was selected as a 2014 recipient for the Texas Award for Performance Excellence (TAPE) from the Quality Texas Foundation, representing the highest level of quality an organization can achieve in the state of Texas. Methodist Healthcare is the first and only healthcare system in South Texas and the third organization in San Antonio to receive the award since its inception in 1994.[LEARN MORE]

Methodist Healthcare hospitals were recognized as 2016 Top Performers on Key Quality Measures by the Joint Commission and were included as part of the Joint Commission’s 2014 annual report, “America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety,” for attaining and sustaining excellence in accountability for measuring performance for heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia, surgical care, and children’s asthma. We are the only health care system in San Antonio to receive Top Performer status.[LEARN MORE]

Ranked Best Hospital in San Antonio by U.S. News and World Report: and rated high performing in five conditions/procedures: abdominal aortic aneurysms, heart failure, lung cancer surgery, colon cancer surgery and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To help patients decide where to receive care, U.S. News evaluates data on nearly 5,000 hospitals in 16 adult specialties, 9 adult procedures and conditions and 10 pediatric specialties. To be nationally ranked in a specialty, a hospital must excel in caring for the sickest, most medically complex patients. The ratings in procedures and conditions, by contrast, focus on typical Medicare patients. Hospitals that do well in multiple areas of adult care may be ranked in their state and metropolitan area. [LEARN MORE]

Methodist Texsan Hospital, Metropolitan Methodist Hospital, Methodist Stone Oak Hospital, Methodist Ambulatory Surgery Hospital and Methodist Healthcarse System were designated by Modern Healthcare as Top 150 Best Places to Work in Healthcare for 2018 (website to be updated in August, after Modern Healthcare conference). [LEARN MORE]

Continuous honor roll grades from Leapfrog, a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in thequality and safety of American health care. Once again, five Methodist hospitals received an “A” grade, with the remaining qualified hospitals receiving a “B”. Receiving an “A” grade in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades means these hospitals rank among the safest hospitals in the United States. The consistency of the honor roll grades is an incredible feat for any health care system. In addition, Metropolitan Methodist Hospital is the only San Antonio hospital and one of only three Texas hospitals named “Top General Hospital” by the Leapfrog group. [LEARN MORE]

Methodist Healthcare is on the Baldrige Quality Award journey and has earned a site visit for the award two years in a row. In 2017, U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross recognized Methodist Healthcare for best practices in two criteria categories of the 2017 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest Presidential honor for performance excellence. The award recognizes the organization’s commitment to sustainable excellence through innovation, improvement and visionary leadership. Baldrige award judges cited Methodist Healthcare for best practices in the Leadership and Strategy categories. Methodist Healthcare was one of only four organizations to receive best practices recognition last year.

1https://www.ecri.org/components/HRC/Pages/SafSec2.aspx?tab=2 ECRI Institute is an independent nonprofit organization that researches approaches to improving patient care. In the early 1960s, Joel J. Nobel founded ECRI Institute after a four-year-old boy died in his arms from a defibrillator failing to work.